This grant proposal is to upgrade the Laboratory Animal Facility of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), which was created with the construction of a new hospital in 1974, to a level where it can appropriately serve the needs of contemporary medical researchers. The proposal is also intended so the facility can meet the standards of outside agencies which are responsible for regulating the quality of care of research animals. The fundamental portion of the project would provide a capacity for seven quarantine or treatment rooms in an area that now only has two. This will give the facility greatly enchanced capacity to accept animals with diminished immune systems, to house species undergoing protocols requiring their isolation from the rest of the colony, and to permit investigators to conduct procedures on animals without removing them from the unit. In addition, the proposal would provide a new autoclave for the unit, replacing a 1974 piece of equipment which can not be operated in accord with specifications. Further, grant funds would be used to correct a citation listed in a recent AAALAC inspection, stipulating that animal handlers cannot have their lunch room and changing facility within the animal facility. A new changing room would be provided outside the unit. Funds are also requested for the repair of the animal incinerator which is currently broken, causing the unit to pay $400 per week to a hauler to remove animal carcasses.